The "Yellow House" Controversy
The Barakat mansion also known as the "yellow house" was designed by Aftimus and was sentenced for destruction in 1997 since it was heavily damaged during the Lebanese civil war. The mansion is located in Ashrafieh's Sodeco area, intersecting the civil war demarcation line. It was saved by Lebanese activists (particularly the architect Mona Hallak) who had articles about the mansion published in the press almost on a daily basis, wrote petitions, and organized rallies in front of the building. In 2000, Atelier de Recherche ALBA produced a large scale installation based on narratives from this building and its neighborhood. Protestations finally led to the suspension of the decision to destroy the Barakat building in 2003 and the municipality of Beirut decided to acquire it in order to install a memory museum with objects tracing the 7000-year history of the city. The municipality counts on the support of France to advance the restoration.
Read more about this topic: Youssef Aftimus
Famous quotes containing the words yellow, house and/or controversy:
“O hurry to the ragged wood, for there
I will drive all those lovers out and cry
O my share of the world, O yellow hair!
No one has ever loved but you and I.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.”
—Jules Henri Poincare (1854–1912)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)